Daily Break

[Guest2]

https://fb.watch/fVBCqqFE07/

[Kip Powick]

6 hours ago, Skeptic said:

https://fb.watch/fVBCqqFE07/

That would be a hoot to fly but I still wish the Spitfire and I "slipped the surly bonds of earth" at least once !!!!

[Guest2]

Retired engineer allowed to fly replica Spitfire 16 years after he started building it

 

Aretired engineer has been given permission to take to the skies in a hand-built replica of a Spitfire that took him 16 years to assemble.

Steve Markham in his replica WWII Spitfire - David Clarke/Solent News & Photo Agency© David Clarke/Solent News & Photo Agency

Steve Markham spent 11,250 hours piecing the aircraft together in a barn at his home, assisted by his wife Kay.

Now, 16 years after he started the project, the qualified pilot has received the official green light to fly the handmade plane.

Although his first planned trip is to travel across the Solent to the Isle of Wight for ice cream, Mr Markham has his sights set further afield.

He said that next summer he was going to "get up early" and fly to Rome with his wife, have "a nice Italian lunch" and "then fly back the same day".

The 200mph aircraft is a replica of the PL793, a Photo Reconnaissance Spitfire, which was based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire in the last year of the Second World War.

 

Kay Markham in the Spitfire - Solent News & Photo Agency© Provided by The Telegraph

Mr Markham, who lives near to the base, said he had wanted a Spitfire ever since I was eight years old and saw Reach for the Sky" a 1956 biopic of the aviator Douglas Bader.

He said the PL793 models, which were “painted blue to help hide in the sky",  were the spy planes of their day, adding that his plane was a tribute to the RAF servicemen who flew them.

He said|: “Without the RAF and their success in World War Two, the lives of my generation would have been very different. We owe them a great debt.”

 

Mr Markham had tried to buy vintage models but always got outbid, so he decided to build his own.

He bought a kit for the aircraft’s frame in 2006 but he sourced the engine parts, propellers and paint separately.

He said: “If you want to buy a World War Two original Spitfire it now costs between £2 million and £4 million. This is a much less expensive way of doing it.”

 

'Wonderfully supportive'

He described it as a "complicated beast" to put together, with some parts not fitting properly that had to be replaced.

Mrs Markham helped him with the rivets that required two people to set in place and also made the leather upholstery.

He said: “She’s been wonderfully supportive throughout the whole process.”

He finally completed the Spitfire in 2017. However, it has taken five years to get a full flight permit from the Civil Aviation Authority.

In 2018 it was flown by a test pilot but the engine overheated, so it had to come back to his workshop for repairs.

On later test flights he was restricted to a range of 35 nautical miles from the airfield and was not allowed to have passengers.

In July 2022, Mr Markham successfully completed the test flight programme and was granted permission to venture further afield and to be accompanied.

Since he started construction he has been asking visitors if they could donate to the RAF Benevolent Fund, which supports serving and former RAF members and their families.

[Guest2]

A mix, aviation or ground transport related.   If moderators think not a good fit, then I will gladly move it to the NON forum. 

'It's awesome': world's first flying bike makes U.S. debut

Posted September 15, 2022

Riding the XTURISMO hoverbike was "exhilarating", "comfortable" and like something right out of a sci-fi film, according to Thad Szott, a co-chair of the Detroit Auto Show, who took the machine for a test flight.

'It's awesome': world's first flying bike makes U.S. debut | Reuters Video

[Guest2]

This is what Lukla Airport in Nepal looks like, and it has been described as "the most dangerous airport in the world" due to its limited space.

 

 

[Kip Powick]

I don't think it can be categorized as the most dangerous airport in the world due to SPACE...unless the assessor is basing the designation with reference to the fact that there is little, or almost next to none, SPACE for maneuvering after Take-off and with max load and loss of a motor......it would be almost impossible to recover when one takes off from an airport sitting at 9000+MSL surrounded by high mountains.

Loss of directional control during takeoff resulted in the loss of three lives on the ground.....in this case I guess we can say SPACE as the runway is close to aircraft parking but I can name a few airports that have the  same situation with respect to parking close to a runway.

Video of the last crash at LUKLA

 

 

[boestar]

Courchevel is another one that has little space and a fun up hill landing and downhill takeoff

 

[boestar]

This is a Quick and dirty takeoff and return to land at Lukla.  Really a small place

 

[Kip Powick]

10 hours ago, boestar said:

 

This is a Quick and dirty takeoff and return to land at Lukla.  Really a small place

 

Registration is a AC Boeing 787 

[boestar]

1 hour ago, Kip Powick said:

Registration is a AC Boeing 787 

yes it is.  good catch

[boestar]

18 minutes ago, boestar said:

yes it is.  good catch

This one

 

[Guest2]

 

[Jaydee]

1 hour ago, Skeptic said:

 

If you like RC JETS and are ever near Lakeland Florida in March or April .check this out!

 

https://www.franktiano.com/events

 

 

Edited October 15, 2022 by Jaydee

[Guest2]

A lengthy video that talks about the Spitfire and it's innovations.

 

[Kip Powick]

Extremely interesting when you think about the lack of high tech equipment. Some very good brains worked all this out with pencils and probably antiquated slide rules.  Thanks for posting.

[Specs]

17 hours ago, Kip Powick said:

antiquated slide rules

I still have 2 of them.  Things move slowly in aerospace design. 

I remember starting at deHavilland and it always amazed me that if if I looked at old B&W pictures of Aircraft Engineering offices from the 30s and 40s, they didn't look much different than the one outside my office window in the 90s.

[Guest2]

Stratolaunch's Roc, the world's largest plane, aces 1st flight carrying hypersonic prototype

Tariq Malik - Yesterday 11:40 p.m.

Stratolaunch's Roc, the world's largest plane, aces 1st flight carrying hypersonic prototype (msn.com)

Stratolaunch, builder of the world's largest airplane, flew a prototype of its planned air-launched Talon hypersonic vehicle for the first time on Friday (Oct. 28).

[Guest2]

 

[Guest2]

Smartwings Returns To Antarctica With The Boeing 737 MAX

Sumit Singh - 9h ago

Smartwings Returns to Antarctica – Airways (airwaysmag.com)

Smartwings Returns To Antarctica With The Boeing 737 MAX© Provided by SimpleFlying

Smartwings this week landed one of its Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in Antarctica. Registration OK-SWA touched town at Troll Research Station on November 11th after a multi-stop trip from Europe.

The low-cost Czech carrier first flew its 737 MAX to Antarctica in January this year. Notably, the airline was the first to deploy the model to the world's largest desert, operating a charter service for Aircontact to transport members of the Norwegian Polar Institute.

Today's flight was the third of such an endeavor for Smartwings. The crew safely carried researchers from Bremen, Germany, and Oslo, Over a period of two days.

Flight QS4196 initially left Bremen for Oslo at 10:51 on November 9th. The MAX 8 then left Oslo for Prague at 14:25 on the same day. The aircraft departed the Czech capital at 17:29 to head to N'Djamena, Chad. On November 10th, the flight departed for Cape Town at 00:41.

Finally, on November 11th, the flight left Cape Town at 11:28 to land at the Troll Research Station soon after 15:00. All times are local.

The twinjet landed back in Prague on November 13th and has already been deployed on regular operations to the likes of Malaga.

 

Get all the latest aviation news right here on Simple Flying.

 

Careful planning

Troll Airfield is found 6.8 km (4.2 mi) from Troll along Princess Martha Coast, Queen Maud Land. A 3,000 m (9,842 ft) long glacial blue ice runway is located here, which requires plenty of work to maintain. The runway has to be constantly monitored and resurveyed in order to be utilized for air operations.

 

There is also plenty to consider from inside the aircraft. The crew consists of three specially trained pilots.

 

“It is necessary to prepare thoroughly for such a flight. The preparations took many months, and the flight and landing went smoothly,” - Smartwings captain and flight director Tomáš Nevole, following the initial January flight.

Busy period

Smartwings follows fellow European carrier Hi Fly in recently returning to Antarctica. The Portuguese airline flew its Airbus A340 to the continent to transport scientists, supplies, and visitors.

Vital research is carried out by the Norwegian Polar Institute, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research at Troll. However, it's not only scientific personnel that is carried to the area. The likes of White Desert promote carbon-neutral tourist trips to Queen Maud Land, allowing a chance to see its plethora of natural wonders.

It’s now summer in Antarctica, meaning that the most popular time to visit is approaching amid the warmer weather and longer days. Those on the ground will be making most of their time there before returning ahead of the winter season.

[Kip Powick]

Decades ago I spent a lot of time flying in and out of Thule, Greenland as that was our jump-off point for CFS Alert.

I think there might be many pilots that are not aware that the runway surface  at Thule was WHITE with RED markings up until about 2013. The WHITE paint adversely affected braking action but for C-130s it was no big deal.

WHITE was meant to reflect the summer sun from warming the runway and having it sink into the perma frost areas

After a long study  in 2013 it was decided not to paint the runway WHITE any more,  and it is now a normal ashphalt runway. 

Pictures of the WHITE runway can be found on Goggle and Google Earth will now show a normal asphalt colored runway.

[Guest2]

https://fb.watch/hdPT_dZuSL/

[Guest2]

 

[Kip Powick]

2 hours ago, Skeptic said:

https://fb.watch/hdPT_dZuSL/

What a great SAR tool !!! The Police will probably get them as well, have trained personnel to operate them and  rescue persons in very difficult locations, such as car over "the edge" etc..

[Guest2]

Could A Preserved Concorde Ever Return To The Skies?

Story by Jake Hardiman • 4h ago

 

Concorde is an aircraft that captures the imagination and is instantly recognizable even to non-aviation fanatics. The second commercial passenger airliner capable of supersonic speed (just pipped to the post by the Soviet Tu-144), it was capable of flying you to your destination before you had departed, thanks to time differences.

Could A Preserved Concorde Ever Return To The Skies?© Provided by SimpleFlying

Only 20 airframes were built, and just 14 of those were in commercial operation. The other six were prototype aircraft that its manufacturers used to develop the aircraft that would eventually carry passengers. It has now been almost 20 years since the last flight, but is there any possibility that Concorde could fly again?

 

The history of Concorde

In the early 1960s, the governments of the UK and France agreed to design an aircraft capable of supersonic flight. Development continued through the 1960s and 1970s, with the prototype flying in 1969, followed by the first commercial service in 1976. There were initial orders from over a dozen airlines, but many were canceled due to environmental and economic factors, including the 1973 energy crisis.

Love aviation history? Discover more of our stories here!

Only two airlines eventually operated Concorde, namely British Airways and Air France. The 14 commercial Concordes were evenly split, with seven at British Airways and seven at Air France. Due to the supersonic speed of the aircraft, the scheduled flight time from London to New York was typically 3.5 hours. The time difference meant you would land in New York earlier than you departed London.

BA and Air France continued to operate the aircraft until its crash in Paris in July 2000, which resulted in its removal from service for safety modifications. British Airways reintroduced Concorde in September 2001, but the economics of operating Concorde and the slump in air travel after 9/11 resulted in British Airways and Air France retiring their fleets. The final Concorde flight was in November 2003.

Where are the aircraft today?

After Concorde was retired, the surviving examples of the aircraft have become mainly museum exhibits, in varying states of preservation. Many are in excellent condition, and some even have all four engines attached. One Air France Concorde was still partially active after retirement to help the investigations into the crash.

Readers that have flown into and out of London's Heathrow Airport (LHR) may have noticed an ex-British Airways Concorde that is stored outside. However, this example of the iconic jet has had its engines removed, and was internally stripped of its parts. The Concorde at the National Museum of Flight in Scotland had to have its wings removed to transport it into place by boat.

 

 

Elsewhere, the frames at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington and another in Barbados have been preserved to a high standard. Despite the ongoing preservation, none of these Concordes are anywhere close to being airworthy.

 

Could a preserved Concorde fly again?

There are presently no modern commercial airliners in service that compare with the speed and glamour of Concorde. Ever since retirement, there have been campaigns to get Concorde flying again. There are two Concordes at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, and of these, one is considered to be the best preserved.

That being said, even this one would require significant investment to enable it to fly again. After all, maintenance support from Airbus was discontinued after the aircraft retired, so spare parts are not in production. With Concorde having been withdrawn from service almost 20 years ago, a diminishing number of people with experience working with the aircraft are still in the industry.

Even if the technical and regulatory issues could be resolved, it would be difficult to justify the economics of reactivating Concorde and integrating it into the fleet of a modern airline. It may be technically possible to restore a preserved example of Concorde to be able to fly again, and there have been several groups interested in doing so. Still, it would take a significant financial commitment.

The challenges of manufacturing and certifying new parts, maintaining a licensed flight crew capable of flying it, and ongoing maintenance and preservation, mean we are no closer to seeing Concorde flying again since its last flight in 2003.

 

Not for the want of trying

As mentioned earlier, there has been some interest in getting preserved examples of Concorde moving again, if not back in the sky. For example, in 2010, the BBC reported that a £15 million project had been launched with the intention of returning an ex-Air France Concorde to the air. The group wanted it to feature as part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, but this never came to fruition.

Source: BBC

[Guest2]

You have to wonder how many, if any got through.

Guns confiscated at US airports hit record levels

• Published
  2 hours agoIMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption,

  The TSA was founded in response to the 9/11 terror attacks with the mission of preventing similar attacks

By Nathan Williams

BBC News

 

A record number of firearms was confiscated from US airport passengers in 2022, transport officials have said.

A total of 6,301 guns were taken at checkpoints as of mid-December - and of those 88% were still loaded.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it expects to confiscate 6,600 guns by year's end - a 10% increase over 2021's record level.

The agency said guns brought to airports consumes significant resources and is very costly for the passenger.

The number of guns found surpasses the previous record from just last year, when 5,972 firearms were detected.

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, had the highest number of recorded firearm stops, while Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in the state of Texas had the second highest.

No reason was given for why more people were attempting to clear security while carrying a weapon.

Gun possession laws vary by US state, but firearms are not allowed in the passenger cabin on an aeroplane, even if a passenger has a concealed weapon permit.

If TSA officials detect a weapon at a checkpoint, they issue a civil penalty that varies by number of previous offenses and whether the gun was loaded at the time.

The agency also said it is raising the maximum civil penalty for a firearms violation from $13,910 (£11,450) to $14,950.

Airline passengers can travel with firearms in a checked bag when they are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided case. Travellers must also tell airline representatives that they intend to travel with the weapon during check-in.

In April a US Congressman, Madison Cawthorn, was stopped attempting to bring a gun through security at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, local police said. He admitted the weapon was his and cooperated with officers.

 

The TSA said it screened more than 2.5 million individuals nationwide on 27 November - the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday - marking the highest volume since the start of the pandemic.

There were an estimated 390 million guns in circulation in the US in 2018, according to figures from the Small Arms Survey - a Swiss-based leading research project.

 

Guns confiscated at US airports hit record levels - BBC News